


Model Citizen

by FarmlandTensions



Series: Ereri Week 2015 [5]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: F/M, Greek Mythology - Freeform, Mythology - Freeform, Pygmalion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-05
Updated: 2015-06-05
Packaged: 2018-04-03 00:26:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,068
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4079593
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FarmlandTensions/pseuds/FarmlandTensions
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For Day Four of Ereri Week 2015 - Mythology.</p><p>Looking for love, sculptor Eren carves his perfect woman out of stone, and prays to the Goddess Aphrodite to make her real. His wish is granted, but his perfect “woman” doesn’t turn out to be quite what he expects.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Model Citizen

Eren Jaeger wasn’t the most skilled sculptor in Greece. He hadn’t been blessed with artistic talent, and the muses rarely visited his studio. But he was determined, and his determination helped him steadily improve his skill, and his ambition drove him to his most important work of art.

Eren Jaeger was a perfectionist. He didn’t settle with his work until he had every detail ironed out the way he envisioned it in his mind. And this applied to more than just his sculpting. Eren’s love life was next to non-existent. It wasn’t that he wasn’t appealing - he was good looking, and charming, and his sculptures earned him enough money to get by. His stubbornness and quick temper and the amount of time he dedicated to his work all detracted from this, but not enough so that he didn’t have his pick of suitors vying for his attention. But none of them were perfect. None of them fit the image in his mind of the ideal woman.

And then one day, the muses did visit Eren’s workshop. And he was inspired. He spent day and night sculpting the perfect image, one he had refined in his mind over the years. When he was done, he admired his work of art. There she stood, 5’3” of smooth marble, a delicate porcelain face, cropped hair that looked more like silk than stone, a petite frame and smouldering eyes. And he fell in love.

The rumours spread that Eren Jaeger had lost his mind. Dozens of beautiful girls had wanted his hand in marriage and he had fallen in love with a statue. His other work suffered, and he began to eat less and sleep less, obsessed with this perfect woman he had created. He prayed to Aphrodite that he would find someone as perfect as his marble bride, so he would no longer have to lament that she existed only in stone.

The next morning, Eren awoke to find his perfect statue was nothing but dust, and he wept. He did not eat that day, only mourned the loss of his perfect beauty. That evening, a knock came at his door, and he barely dragged himself from his bed to answer. When he pulled the door open, he was greeted by the face he had carved out of stone, just as delicate and precious but now made of soft, pale skin where marble had been previously. He began to weep again, thinking his prayers had been answered.

And then she spoke. Or, rather, he spoke. Eren hadn’t much thought about how his beloved’s voice should sound, but he certainly hadn’t expected it to be so husky and deep. His grin faltered as the confusion set in. There had to be some mistake, his hand-carved wife’s voice should not be deeper than his own. She shouldn’t be glaring at him with the perfectly sculpted eyebrows he had crafter for her.

The man moved in with Eren. He didn’t have anywhere else to go, and Eren had to take responsibility for his creation. He wondered what he had done to anger the gods, why he deserved this punishment. He began to sculpt again, needing the money to pay for food for himself and his new housemate. His statue was a man of few words, but when he did speak, his words were harsh, his voice gravelly. He had no manners, and dressed only in the tunic Eren had carved initially. When he got over his initial despair, Eren became a teacher to the man. He taught him of society, taught him of the gods, taught him to read and write, and the man was a patient student, though his face was set in a perpetual glare.

Once his reading skills were sufficient, the man would sit and read as Eren sculpted, and Eren found himself stealing more and more glances at him. Admiring the slope of his nose and the curve of his lips and the pale, smooth skin. He still looked as perfect as he had when Eren had carved him out of marble. He looked even more perfect, even, as he perched on a stool and flicked through Eren’s books. And the sculptor began to grow fond of his creation.

They had been living together a number of weeks before the man asked Eren what his name was. He had never considered that as his creator, he should be the one to name him, so he told the man it was his own decision, he was free to choose his own name. The name he chose was Levi - He said it felt right, and Eren agreed that it suited him.

They spent most of their waking hours together. Even when they weren’t interacting, they were sharing the same space. They grew comfortable in each other’s presence. When Levi learned to cook, he began cooking for Eren regularly, he became enthused with finding and trying new things to cook. And Eren began bringing him to markets to buy ingredients and spices he had never seen before. And he found that spending his money was easy when he got to see that perfect mouth lift up at the corners and a spark show in the eyes that had been so much more dead than he realised when he first carved them. He would watch Levi cook, watch the content look on his face as he worked. And at the end of the day he would get a good meal and a happier Levi.

As time passed, Eren grew more and more fond of the man he had carved from stone. He stopped believing he was being punished, and it wasn’t long before he realised that his prayers had been granted that day, he had just been too blind to see it. And it clicked that perhaps he had never been able to find his perfect woman because he had never been meant to be with a woman in the first place. Though he was glad he hadn’t realised it before he took the time to carve the person of his dreams. If he had met a man near-perfect before he resorted to sculpting Levi, then he would never have found the person who was perfect in every way.

Aphrodite had blessed him after all. And he taught Levi of love, and he lived out his days with the man he carved from stone.

 


End file.
